Wenger right about his side v Manchester City and that’s the problem

Arsene Wenger said that his side’s performance against Manchester City on Thursday night was ‘huge’ despite being comprehensively beaten by Pep Guardiola’s men for the second time in four days.

Speaking after the match, Wenger told the press, “It’s tough but it’s explainable after what happened on Sunday and the consequences of the hype about our performance on Sunday and it hits you but I think the players put a pretty huge performance in today but unfortunately we had some weak defending.”

In that game, City were well below par and Arsenal could have beaten them had they shown up. At the Emirates on Thursday night, in front of 58,420 fans, 30,000 of whom came wrapped in invisibility cloaks to protect them from the cold, Arsenal did turn up. They gave it their best shot and delivered a ‘huge effort’, but so did City and they wiped the park with us.

That’s the problem. It’s not the effort, not this week anyway although that is a frequent problem, but the fact that Arsenal are just not a very good football side.

Even at their best, they are a universe away from Manchester City, closer now to West Brom at the foot of the table than the Citizens at the top.

We aren’t even playing good football while we lose, something we could at least point to about three seasons ago.

The club have changed the players. They have changed the assistant manager, the captain, the chief scout, the transfer negotiator, fitness coach, first team coaches and more. They refuse to change the manager.